Australian Discussion (Final Squad Announced Post #82)

[vcs]

Johnson must have beaten Umar Akmal also half a dozen times in the previous game. Batsmen still haven't worked out his angle completely IMO.

 

[social]

From what I have read and heard Ponting couldn't have been more unhappy about the make-up of the squad, Mussey was a good inclusion but Ponting was pretty vocal that in terms of the balance of the squad he definitely didn't want him as a replacment to Bollinger.

Our fast-bowling trio wasn't bad despite being slightly down on discipline but we very let down in big way becuase of the lack of having a decent spinner or two, a spin bowling combination of Smith and Hauritz in the middle order would have gone a long in giving our attack a lot more penetration.

Ponting may not have been thrilled with the squad's composition but some of the tactics still left a lot to be desired

Failing to bowl Lee out against Pakistan was a shocker

The field placings for Krejza were bewildering and largely defeated the purpose of even playing a spinner

However, the on-selection of Hastings for at least one game just about summed the whole thing up for me - the "brains trust" formulated selection/strategy months ago and nothing was going to change

 

[pup11]

Not going to argue with the general gist of that ("not being as good as Ricky Ponting or Allan Border" is not the world's harshest criticism) but given that so many people are willing to completely forget or ignore anything useful, positive or important that he's ever done - and there are more than enough examples of that to go around - I think that I'm doing a useful service by injecting some ****ing balance into the debate every once in a while.

Lee was outstanding. Johnson was pretty good - deserved better reward yesterday - but Tait was absolute trash.

Mate, I have nothing against Clarke but he for me just hasn't expanded his game form the promise he showed in his early years.

As a batsman he should have been able workout his game very well by now, but you get a feeling he is still struggling to find how to use his talent in the best possible way.

In the last 12 months he has got out in every ridiculous way possible and for me that doesn't show great promise as far as his growth as a batsman is concerned, you earn the respect of your team-mates and supporters by rising upto an ocassion and winning important games for your team which for me Clarke has very rarely done.

In a team like Australia a captain is expected to lead from the front by example, so much so that even tactical acumen is only secondary to that and that's why likes of AB, Tugga and Punter are considered such greats captains despite not being brilliant cricket-brains.

 

[Spark]

No, he's contracted it markedly. And it made him an infinitely better player in 2006-9, especially those last two years. He's gone absolutely beserk in the last year, and he needs to remember the way he batted just beforehand, but he can do it.

 

[pup11]

Ponting may not have been thrilled with the squad's composition but some of the tactics still left a lot to be desired

Failing to bowl Lee out against Pakistan was a shocker

The field placings for Krejza were bewildering and largely defeated the purpose of even playing a spinner

However, the on-selection of Hastings for at least one game just about summed the whole thing up for me - the "brains trust" formulated selection/strategy months ago and nothing was going to change

Its almost 9 years since Ricky took over Australian captaincy and as an Australian fan you should know that Rick kind of loses the plot when things get a bit too tactical.

Anyways I have always said that Ponting is a truly a coach's captain, the strategy that a coach makes he can go out there and implement it well but if that doesn't work then he pretty much is left chasing the ball from there on.

You were talking about Johnson beating Yuvraj's bat last night, I mean had Ponting continued with Johnson rather than bringing Lee or Tait back then I'm pretty sure we could have won from that situation, but all that is in hindsight and the fact of the matter as I've said in the other thread is that other players have to rise up now and prove that they are worthy of wearing green and gold.